Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: ” Download report data here – Executive Summary: “The tax overhaul signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2017 cut the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but during the first five years it has been in effect, most profitable corporations paid considerably less than that. This is mainly due to loopholes and special breaks that the 2017 tax law left in place and, in some cases, introduced. Corporate tax avoidance occurs because Congress allows it to occur, and the Trump tax law in many ways made it worse. The corporate minimum tax and expanded tax enforcement funding signed into law in 2022 by President Biden could begin to reduce corporate tax avoidance, as would other proposals from the White House that have not yet become law. This study examines federal corporate income taxes paid by the largest profitable corporations from 2018 through 2022. Because the corporations included in this study were profitable each year for all five of those years, one would reasonably expect that they would pay significant taxes. But in many cases, they did not.
- The 342 companies included in this study paid an average effective income tax rate of just 14.1 percent during this five-year period, almost a third less than the statutory rate of 21 percent.
- Nearly a quarter of the corporations in this study (87 companies) paid effective tax rates in the single digits or less during this five-year period.
- Of these, 55 (16 percent of the total 342 companies) paid effective rates of less than 5 percent. This is particularly striking given that all these companies were profitable for at least five years consecutively. Companies paying less than 5 percent include T-Mobile, DISH Network, Netflix, General Motors, AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, FedEx, Molson Coors, Nike, and many others.
- Twenty-three corporations paid zero federal tax over the five-year period despite being profitable in every single year. And 109 corporations paid zero federal tax in at least one of the five years.
- At the other end of the spectrum, 50 corporations paid effective tax rates of more than 21 percent, but most of these companies were also the beneficiaries of large tax breaks because they were paying taxes from previous years that they delayed using depreciation breaks.
The low effective corporate tax rates found in this study demonstrate the need for substantial tax reform, of which the new corporate minimum tax that was signed into law by President Biden is a welcome first step. Of proposals currently being advanced, an even more important additional step would be the global minimum tax negotiated by the Biden administration but currently blocked by Congress…”
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